The present invention relates, in general, to pillows, and more particularly, to a pillow which is formed using a plurality of polygonal units, thus allowing a user to have deep sleep and thereby protecting and correcting the cervical vertebrae.
Generally, it is already known that a bad sleep posture deforms the neck bones and negatively affects the back bone, the waist, and the pelvis.
Thus, if people use a very thin pillow or sleep without a pillow, excessive body pressure is generated on the shoulder and the shoulder blade, so that they have a pain in the shoulder and arm, and shear load is generated on the lumbar, so that most people complain of sharp pains in their backs, and besides, people have a pain in the spine and the muscle of the entire neck becomes stiff.
Further, pressure occurs in an abdominal region, and a person having poor liver function feels seriously uncomfortable. When this continues for a lengthy period of time, the liver function becomes poor. Hence, the pillow supporting the head during a sleep that occupies about a third of a lifetime plays an important role.
However, a conventional cushioning pillow filled with a lot of cotton is problematic in that the head and the shoulder are raised, thus causing wrinkling at the neck, snoring, and pains in the back of the neck, the shoulders and the spine.
Further, since the head and shoulder are raised, the lungs are pressurized and lung function is deteriorated, so that a sufficient amount of oxygen is not supplied. Thereby, a person does not feel completely refreshed even after he or she sleeps. If such a pillow is used for a lengthy period of time, there is high possibility of the neck being deformed into cervical hypolordosis, and the risk of a herniated cervical disc is high.
Therefore, a so-called memory foam pillow or a latex pillow as a pillow manufactured shape memory sponge has been proposed. This pillow is good in texture but is too soft. Thus, the head height of the pillow is proper but the pillow cannot support the cervical vertebrae, so that the height of a pillow portion supporting the cervical vertebrae is undesirably lower than that of a pillow portion supporting the head.
For this reason, it obstructs the blood flow of the back of neck, so that blood is not smoothly supplied to some blood vessels of the brain, and a person has a pain in the shoulder and the spine around the back after he or she sleeps. In addition, this disturbs deep sleep, so that a person feels sluggish even after sleeping, and suffers from a backache. If the pillow is used for a lengthy period of time, the risk of the cervical hypolordosis or the herniated cervical disc becomes high.
Further, a circular pillow or a wood pillow filled with hard pillow chips as stuffing is problematic in that a load concentrates at a specific portion, such as the 4th cervical vertebrae or the 5th cervical vertebrae, so that the muscles around the neck and the cervical vertebrae are strained and circulation of blood is disturbed when the pillow is used for a lengthy period of time.
In order to solve the above problems, various pillows have been disclosed for supporting the cervical vertebrae: a pillow according to Korean U.M. Registration No. 20-0248442 includes a pillow body and a cervical vertebrae supporting pillow, a pillow according to Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2011-0012265 is configured such that a head support part and a cervical vertebral support part are separated from each other by means of a separator sheet, and a pillow according to Korean Patent No. 10-1021355 is configured such that a plurality of cushioning support members are inserted therein.
However, the pillows according to the prior art are problematic in that it is impossible to disperse the head load, so that it is undesirable.
That is, the pillow according to Korean U.M. Registration No. 20-0248442 is similar to a simple circular pillow, so that a user's head is tilted back when sleeping with the pillow.
Thus, after a user has slept using the pillow, he or she has a tingling pain in the back of neck. All users sleep with their mouths open, so that they feel thirsty, suffer from nightmares, do not have deep sleep, catch cold easily, and frequently suffer from ear, nose and throat diseases.
Further, the pillow of Korean Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 10-2011-0012265 is configured such that, when the head load presses the head support part, the cervical vertebral support part comes into contact with the cervical vertebrae. However, this pillow is problematic in that the separator sheet is present between the head support part and the cervical vertebral support part, so that the cervical vertebral support part cannot reliably come into contact with the cervical vertebrae, and besides, a resilient and soft material should be used as pillow stuffing, so that the pillow cannot reliably support the cervical vertebrae.
Furthermore, the pillow of Korean Patent No. 10-1021355 can adjust only a height, so that it merely functions to separately support the head and the cervical vertebrae. Thus, the pillow is problematic in that it is difficult to properly support the cervical vertebrae of all persons who are different in body size.